


child of my body, flesh of my soul

by Beastrage



Series: illuminate our stories [5]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood, Changelings, Fairy Tale Elements, Game: Kingdom Hearts I, Gen, Only minor canon divergence, Possession, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:47:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27089611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beastrage/pseuds/Beastrage
Summary: In which Riku becomes a Changeling, with Maleficent's "help."
Relationships: Maleficent & Riku (Kingdom Hearts)
Series: illuminate our stories [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1413787
Comments: 8
Kudos: 40
Collections: Mama Mal and Changeling Riku





	child of my body, flesh of my soul

Once, Riku had been a human. 

An ordinary boy, on an ordinary beach. A beach in a world on the edge of everything. A nowhere place. A place much too small, for dreamers. 

Especially a dreamer like this Riku. 

But he is human. Painfully, brutally human. Human in all the best and worst ways. 

Too human, in the end, for what fate comes for him. His island. His friends. 

He reaches out and reaches out too far. Curiosity killed the cat, after all. 

The Darkness devours him whole. 

No ordinary human can survive such a concentrated void. Not alone. Not without the necessary protective magicks. 

(Without a Keyblade.)

It’s a miracle that brings Riku to the doorstep of Hollow Bastion. Perhaps, even  _ destiny.  _

Still talking, still walking. Thinking. 

Until he falls. 

Right at the feet of the world’s self-proclaimed ruler. 

Now, another time, another Hollow Bastion, in a slightly kinder reality, the boy would wake on his own. Wake and go about, in his misguided way, attempting to fix the world. While fumbling and making it worse, naturally, as arrogant children who think themselves heroes tend towards. 

That Riku will remain entirely human. Down to the bone, down to the core. 

No matter how much he doubts, what future choices he makes...

That much will always be true. For that Riku, at least. 

This one, he does not wake. This one, he dies very slowly. Slipping ever closer to the void he had plucked himself from. But he does not die. Not yet. 

Maleficent looks down, at the boy laying at her feet. Thinks to herself,  _ why, I wonder what I can do with this.  _

She is a fairy, through and through. Is a fairy first, no matter how many titles she has layered onto herself, by this point. And fairies have never thought anything of taking human children to make useful tools out of them. 

But she cannot make a tool of a dead boy. Maleficent is not that kind of witch.

(Not yet.)

A feather, she plucks, accompanied by a loud squawk, from her familiar’s breast to drop on the boy’s chest. His sunken chest rises once more. 

Ashes, brushed from the edge of her own fire, sprinkled on his face. Filling his face with the flush of the merely sleeping, rather than the lividness of the newly dead.

From her finger, pierced upon a thorn, falls three drops of blood. Three delicate drops of fairy blood, falling to land directly upon the dying boy’s lips. The paleness of those lips become a brilliant scarlet. Full of life once more. 

The boy’s eyelids flutter, eyes beneath them glowing in a way no human’s ever has, and Maleficent smiles. Satisfied with what she has wrought. 

“Hello, boy. Who might you be?”

Later, in saying he is like a son to her, Maleficent speaks true. 

Yet, had she said instead,  _ you are my son _ , she would still be speaking true. 

For a fairy, you see, cannot lie. 

For what wakes up rises because of her blood. Her abomination. Her new tool. Her  _ son _ .

“My name’s Riku.”

~

It’s funny, how every room in Hollow Bastion is just well lit enough for Riku to see by.

Dim, but still clear enough for him to see, despite the lack of any light switches or working light fixtures. 

Maleficent said that he’s free to explore the castle, anywhere he can reach and see. And so far...that’s everywhere. 

Except for one stubborn platform, high above his head. Riku scowls at it. 

“I’ll get up there,” he mutters, “You won’t stop me.”

Nothing convenient to climb on. Or jump on either. 

He’ll just have to go for it. Straight to the top, or more like straight across and upwards. 

If he falls...well, it’ll hurt. 

A lot. 

Riku doesn’t  _ want  _ to think about what Maleficent will say if he breaks his legs.

So he won’t. Simple as that. He never did, falling from trees back home. 

Riku carefully does not think about how there’s soft sand under the trees back home. 

How there’s hard rock flooring here, should he fall. He won’t. 

Riku lets out a breath and pulls the expelled air back in with the next. 

_ Leaps.  _

His hands reaching out, grasping for the edge. 

He  _ nearly  _ doesn’t make it. 

But, somehow, he does. Clambers over that difficult slick edge, fingernails somehow gouging the rock, Riku lays down on the platform. 

Struggles for breath, for words, as he stares up at a ceiling he cannot see. 

“Huh. I thought I wouldn’t make it there, for a second.”

That the jump was too far, too high...

But he made it.

So it wasn’t. That’s all there is to it. 

Felt almost like flying...making that jump. Riku closes his eyes to better focus on that feeling. 

Maybe, he could do it again. Fly. 

(Somewhere, deep in his heart, something hums. Something  _ grows. _ )

(You wish to fly?)

(Then fly  _ you shall. _ )

~

The villains meet often, but not that often. And they don’t call themselves villains either, that’s something  _ heroes  _ do. No, they’re simply...like-minded individuals. That’s all. 

They’re  _ discussing  _ what to do next, this group of like-minded individuals, when the boy walks in. Without a care in the world, completely dismissive of the fact that he’s entered the gathering of some of the most powerful folks among the worlds. 

It’s the same sort of scorn that follows Maleficent like a shadow, some of the more clever members note to themselves. 

Those with family members of their own (examples including Hades and Ursula) catch more details than that. 

Like, say, the subtle eyeshine the kid has. Gleaming green like the witch’s own glow, the witch he stands next to. 

_ Challenging,  _ with her  _ allowing it.  _ Without threatening to gut him, at least. 

No, she only seems...amused, a slight smile pulling at the edge of her mouth. 

Hades outright mouths  _ who is this kid  _ to Ursula. Who only shrugs, seeming just as amused while her tentacles wave with an unseen current. 

And are those...scales? Creeping along those cheeks, about to break out like a serious case of godly pimples? The kid’s teeth also seem a bit  _ too  _ sharp for a human’s. 

It’s obvious, really, what’s going on here. 

The kid leaves just as dramatically as he entered. All he needs is some kind of cloak to wrap around his shoulders and the mirroring of Maleficent would be perfect. 

“Hey, Maleficent, when exactly did you spawn?” Hades asks, tapping his fingers against an invisible table. Glancing between Maleficent and the clearly fairy-blooded boy that had just left the room. 

“That is none of your business,” Maleficent says firmly, sweeping her cloaked arm towards the war-table. Bringing up a glowing figure of another boy with a twitch of her long fingers. One followed by a dog and a duck, wandering towards an unseen destination. “There are other matters to attend to. Such as the boy with the Keyblade...”

The rest of the villains in the room exchange looks with each other, but say nothing more on the topic. 

But rest assured. Villains are a gossipy lot and this topic of Maleficent’s boy is a topic more deserving of gossip than most. So in the end, all of these ‘bad guys’ will know of the strange changeling tugging at Maleficent’s robes. Just as soon as they escape the witch’s watchful eye in order to chat about it...

~

There are no mirrors in Hollow Bastion. If there were any, they were taken down long ago. 

Maybe if the mirrors still persisted, the boy would more clearly see the changes to his body taking effect. Rather than thinking or wishing them away. 

Maleficent watches him. Carefully, as to be sure her investment will not fall over. That the transformation will be too much and she’ll be left with only a corpse for her trouble. Careful, careful, now. 

She has plotted for years upon years now. She can be patient. 

Just a little longer...

Darkness adds power to his already swift movements. Strengthens the transforming power of fey blood running through his veins. Why, he can already summon his own magical weapons with barely a nudge from her needed. 

Soon, the fairy thinks, she’ll be able to teach him spells. More of the magic that is now his heritage. He’s already learned so much from her, drinking in new knowledge like a desert flower in a sudden rainshower. Eager to learn, eager to obey. A perfect tool. 

Argumentative, at times. But every changeling has their quirks. 

He’s quite well-shaped, for such a young changeling.

What’ll he become...

Maleficent closes her eyes. Rubs at her staff, digging her claws into the ancient wood.

Why, it’s glorious to imagine. 

She can’t wait to see it. 

~

The air of Hollow Bastion isn’t exactly  _ dry _ . Not with the waterfalls always gushing, far below the main castle. But it’s more musty than the winds of Destiny Islands ever were. Different from  _ home.  _

Leaves Riku with strange dry patches on his face, his arms. He scratches at his silvery dry skin and it comes up easily in clusters. Almost looking like fish scales. 

There are old stories about people turning into mer for various reasons. Sometimes the transformation’s a relief from suffering heartache, other times a curse for betrayal. 

But those are just stories...right?

“Some people would say other worlds are just stories too,” he says out loud. 

Riku spreads out his fingers, bringing his hand up to his face. Closely examining the strange patches the best he can in the dim light. 

Silver and shiny. The color of his hair, in scale form. They reflect the light oddly, as he tilts his hand back and forth. 

He lowers the hand, scratching at it once more. Pulling up more scales. Sprinkling them on the ground like a light rain. “Huh.”

...What does it mean? What  _ could  _ it mean?

Probably nothing, Riku eventually decides. His skin is too dry. That’s all. That’s what it has to be. 

Curses aren’t real. Everyone knows that. 

(Like how everyone knows that other worlds aren’t real?)

“Shut up.” He’s been saying that a lot lately, to the Dark. The Dark, thankfully, doesn’t answer. 

Be too much if it did. 

At least there’s Kairi. She’s...safe now. As safe as she can be, with no Heart. 

“I won’t let anyone hurt you, Kairi. I promise.”

She looks so delicate, asleep. Not even breathing. A doll, almost. 

_ Mine, mine, mine,  _ Riku thinks, and thinks nothing of it. 

(Every dragon needs a princess to guard, after all.)

~

The time draws near. All of the Princesses are gathered. All but one. 

Maleficent has her...suspicions on where the last may be. 

The boy is out, one of the few times he hasn’t refused to leave his ‘friend’ behind. Searching for her Heart. For his ‘friend.’ 

Leaving the room ready for her to enter. Nothing bars his way. The boy knows little of traps and tricks, and even if he did, he wouldn’t apply them to his room anyway.

More fool him, then. But he’s young. Life will teach him as much, if it doesn’t end up killing him first. 

Her eyes survey the room. Darkness provides no barrier, not to a fairy. Not to a Mistress of Darkness. 

Catching themselves on the body. The body of the girl that she’s here for. 

Her eyes narrow, at that same body. Somehow...murkier, in that corner of the bed, compared to the rest of the boy’s room. A magick has been cast, there. 

The girl...hides under a paltry veil. One that would barely be enough to shelter her from an average human’s eyes.

Nothing up against her own, of course. 

Maleficent could rip it away, with a single twist of her finger. Let the veil vanish into nothing, and take the girl to the chamber.

Yet...she stays her hand. 

Examines the thin mist that attempts to shield the girl from harm. A good first attempt, for a fey child that has no idea what he’s doing. That he has such magic in the first place. 

She’ll wait. Sooner rather than later, the boy will come crying to her. Asking her for answers, begging for the girl to wake up. There is no need to take the girl now, when he himself will bring the empty body to her in hopes of a solution.

No need to let him know she was here, in his chosen room. 

To break his trust.

(Not yet, not yet.)

Maleficent turns on her heel and leaves the sleeping girl child behind. 

Patience. 

In the end, all will be hers. 

The boy and the worlds. 

Kingdom Hearts. 

~

In this world, many things go the same. 

Riku is still jealous. Sora still seeks him out, at Hollow Bastion. 

Riku still takes back the Keyblade and with it, Sora’s companions. 

Useless as they are. 

However, it goes the same as that softer, kinder world. 

The second meeting between the friends in Hollow Bastion goes...less so. 

They’re yelling at each other. Screaming about betrayals and trust lost and...

Lots of things. 

Hurtful things, that dig down to the flesh bits of a Heart. The soft parts, like a crab’s insides tucked away in their hard shells. 

Riku loses the Keyblade. Sora’s Will, in the end, is stronger.

Riku screams, the Darkness he wears rippling and growing. 

His head hurts, his eyes burn. He screams and the world almost screams with him. 

Sora certainly does, when his friend  _ falls. _

Blood dribbling from his head, hands up, there’s something new there. Spiked and long and curved and... _ horns.  _

“Get away from us!” One of the companions cries out. 

His fingers trace along those horns but they’re clawed now. Dark and gnarled. 

Riku...runs. 

What else can he do?

He runs and the Dark swallows him up, as it always has. 

At the end of that run, that escape he cannot quite manage, not from his own flesh and blood... 

Maleficent is waiting. Smiling. Prim and proper, not a single sharp tooth showing. 

“What did you  _ do  _ to  _ me _ !?” Riku screams. His claws...dig into his scalp, at the base of his new horns. Drawing dark, dark blood that drips down into his eyes. Down his face. 

“Why, nothing more than planting a seed.” Maleficent gestures to his body, to his claws, his horns. “The rest of it...you did yourself.”

“That’s impossible. People don’t just  _ turn into monsters. _ ”

“You did not transform out of nowhere,  _ Riku _ .” His name drops like a Meteor from her lips. Jolts through his entire body, every cell electrified and waiting at attention. 

Frozen, forced to listen to the rest of her words.

“You asked for it,  _ thirsted  _ for it. And you are no monster.” The Dark Lady spreads her arms with a smile on her lips. Terrifying. Utterly and completely terrifying. 

Riku shivers, still held fast. 

“No, you are something even better:  _ fey _ .”

Not human, is what Riku hears, under those words. 

“ _ Dragon _ ,” she breathes and Riku knows, in his Heart, with every speck of his being, that she speaks true. 

“Let me go!”

“Very well.” Maleficent sweeps out her hand, flicking her fingers at him. Suddenly he’s free again. Free to stagger backwards, desperately seeking for a weapon. A weapon that is not  _ hers.  _

She turns her back on him. Taps her staff on the floor. Calls up a curtain of Darkness she sweeps herself into, disappearing with one last statement left to linger. 

“I’ll be waiting, for when you’re done throwing your little fit.”

Riku’s not throwing a  _ fit _ , thank you very much. It’s a reasonable response to suddenly discovering you’re no longer human, a  _ monster.  _

He snarls, only to cut himself off when it comes out a growl much deeper than any human could ever manage. 

Dies off with a whimper. 

He can’t go home. Not like this.  _ Never  _ like this. 

Monster, monster,  _ monster.  _

He can’t escape his own skin. No matter how much he claws at it. The scales grow back, the wounds heal up, all so very useless. 

Pulling out his new horns...he doesn’t even try. 

Riku didn’t  _ ask  _ for this. 

(Did he?)

“Boy.”

A shadow. 

A shadow without a face. 

Riku’s seen it before. 

“What do you want?” he hisses and it is a  _ true  _ hiss, as harsh as any snake’s. Riku winces. Both at the sound, and the fact that he could make it. 

That hood tilts its head and seems...amused. An emotion that Riku is not sure  _ how  _ he knows, just that he...does. 

The shadow is watching him with the eyes it doesn’t have and it thinks he’s  _ funny.  _

Riku snarls. “Shut up!” He curls up, scales thick on his arms. At least he doesn’t have a tail. (Not yet.)

“You have travelled so very far into the Dark. Will you not travel farther? You have shown no fear in such so far...”

Riku narrows his eyes. He can feel them itch. “Why should I? What would happen?”

The shadow turns towards him. Coming closer. 

“Plunge your Heart into Darkness and you will grow stronger.”

Riku’s eyes go to his arms. The scales, shimmering in the lowlight. “Strong enough to change this?”

“Yes. More than enough power.” A handless sleeve reaches out. “Your choice?”

Anything to make Sora to not look at him  _ like that.  _

“I’ll do it!”

Ansem keeps his promise, in the end. 

But the price...

The price is much more than Riku  _ ever  _ wanted to pay. 

(Isn’t that how it always is, in the end?)

~

It’s an irony, that he looks the closest to human than he has been in a long time when he’s never been farther away. 

Ansem rubs away the rough edges, pulls the body back to what it used to be, before fey magic went havoc. Reworks flesh and bone to suit his purposes. 

_ You’re strong, boy, but you’ll serve as extra bait as well. _

_ Like your beloved princess. _

Just a grin far too wide for a human face. 

They wait for Sora to come. To bring them the Heart they need. That final Light to unlock the door and bring to pass...Kingdom Hearts. 

Riku’s silent wails go unheard.

Nearly. 

A rising of Darkness. Maleficent strides out of her portal, narrowing her yellow eyes at them. 

“What have you done, you foolish boy?”

“This ‘foolish boy’ has made a gift of his body to me.” They spread their arms. (No, no, Riku  _ does not,  _ but the person inside his body does.)

Yellow eyes narrow even further. “He is not  _ yours _ ,” she hisses. 

Ansem lifts a bored eyebrow. “Is he not?” He gestures to the body.  _ His  _ body, now. 

“Release him, and I will not have to obliterate your petty existence,” the witch commands. Like she has  _ any  _ power over him. 

“No.”

Ansem wins. Of course he does. He’s learned much, in his time as a Heartless. Enough to know exactly where to strike, what damages hurt her the most. 

How to bring the dragon out. 

Maleficent shrieks and it’s an angry sound. Certainly no surrender, as her body collapses, expands. Changes by force. 

Claws and scales and wings and fire...

_ Dragon. _

Black and green and every color that Maleficent has always been. Revealed to all the world to see. Something in Riku recoils at the sight, the thought of such exposure. 

Ansem laughs and the Darkness laughs with him. 

He’s still laughing and scoffing when Sora comes. Fights. 

But the Heartless isn’t, anymore, when Sora  _ wins.  _ When Riku stands in his way. Only a Heart. 

“Go! Get out of here!”

Kairi, the duck and the dog, they run. Escape. 

Sora...doesn’t. 

Sora’s  _ gone.  _

Riku  _ burns.  _

The world goes  _ green.  _

~

Mickey doesn’t stare. 

Doesn’t say anything about Riku’s horns, or his claws, or everything else that announces, hey this kid isn’t human.

(Not anymore.)

Riku’s pitifully grateful for that. 

His claws click against each other as they wander through the Realm of Darkness. Searching for one way,  _ any  _ way, out. 

Now that the Door’s closed...who knows where that will be?

Riku closes his eyes. Breathes through his newly sensitive nose. 

At least Sora’s safe. At least Kairi’s got her Heart back. 

For that...

Riku would go through anything. 

Even being a monster for the rest of his life. 

(Dragons do what they must. Light or Dark.)

Riku, in the end, is still Riku. 


End file.
